Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Been a while since I did an "NCIS" post, but the sweet Christmas episode feels like a good opportunity to take the temperature of the room on both the episode (featuring the return of Pa Walton as Gibbs' dad, Gibbs and McGee both doing a great job at playing Santa, an entertaining bar brawl with Tony and Ziva, and Blue October's "Kangaroo City" over the closing montage) and how the season's been thus far.

12 comments:

I'm still enjoying the season so far Alan. It's been solid. I like the dynamic now with Ziva being a probie. I still wish they would resolve the Ziva/Tony dynamic but it really hasn't been at the forefront of any episode other than the premiere so I guess I can't complain too much.

To me, this is a typical NCIS season. Good, not amazing but still a thoroughly enjoyable hour of TV.

So does this mean that Gibbs and Booth are brothers? Makes sense, since, in the last NCIS episode, Parker was the one who found the body. :-).

Almost more than anything else in the episode, I LOVED the last moment between Abby and McGee, as she thanked him with a big lipstick kiss, and he replied back with his own kiss to her forhead. It didn't come across as acting so much as two people who genuinely connect and care for each other. Kudos on that scene.

But I thought Tony's "Secret Santa" storyline was a bit too much; a HR worker who claimed sexual harassment at the wishing of "happy V'tine's Day" would figuratively fly off the handle at a coworker going through her file, I don't care what nice thing she got out of it.

Finally, while they've portrayed Ziva's langauage skills as having gotten better over the years, I have to question this one. "Redthroat?" It just threw me out of the moment because you know she's heard this term, so it came off as an obvious blunder put in so the show can make a joke where it otherwise had none. (However, seeing Tony end the battle cowering in fear on the pool table as Ziva whipped butt = all kinds of awesome.)

It was the first episode I've watched in a while and I watched it with my elderly grandparents, who are huge fans of the show. But even they called the show out on the the Tony's Secret Santa storyline. Why would they have such a trivial piece of information, such as not getting a doll for Christmas as a child, as part of the personal file for a human resources worker? The answer? They wouldn't. Small, but very poor/lazy writing there.

Otherwise, while Gibbs' storyline and the main case was ho-hum, if not anti-climatic, the rest of the episode had a lot of great little moments; McGee's storyline especially.

The episode, and the season, stays on pitch most of the time. I had minor quibbles with last night's ep, most have been mentioned already. Loved Ducky's comments about the contrast between Gibbs and his dad, the bar fight, and Abby's decorating. And a nice small touch, the Yule log burning on the computer screen--I have one myself!

A Christmas episode titled "Faith" featuring a Christian family with a Chaplain father who pays marines to harass his Muslim son into quitting the military, his adulterous daughter-in-law and the murderer younger son who kills his brother for dishonoring the family. Christian honor killing.

I'm still enjoying the show, and I'm glad the show is finally receiving some notice, even if this season isn't quite as strong as it has been in the past. The actors all know their characters quite well now, so it's more fun to settle in and watch their interactions rather than the mystery they solve each week. I had the same quibbles about the Secret Santa gift as everyone else. And for a show with a lead Jewish character, they spend VERY little time on Hanukkah each year, or any of the other holidays, for that matter. It's always seemed a bit odd to me to make a point of her being Jewish, and then not use it at all. Whatev! I do enjoy the show. A pleasant and easy way to pass an hour.

NCIS: LA? Totally different story. I caught another episode recently, and man, that thing is still a huge clunker.